The Rock!

The month of December was a whirlwind!! Between Jon and I being iced in in Texas to our plans totally changing and my mom and I driving home a few days there was very, very little time for blogging.  This was a post I wrote over an month ago:

November 25, 2013

We have been in San Francisco since the middle of October and we finally made a trip to Alcatraz, it only took us 6 weeks. It is surprisingly difficult to get tickets to The Rock because the tours sell out so quickly. We heard the night tours are cool and creepy, but when we went to order tickets it was already sold out for the next month so regular, old day tour it was.

I have vague memories of visiting Alcatraz from when I was 4 years old, but I think I only remember it due to pictures and this was Jon's first trip. We were lucky enough to have family join us for the week of Thanksgiving including my sisters and their families (more to come about their visit in future posts).  For this outing it was my sister, Kristin, my oldest niece, Kelsie and my nephews Jackson, Spencer, and  Clayton along with Jon and myself.

View from the boat as we arrived at The Rock

When you stop and think about it, it is really strange that we have turned this prison into such a huge tourist attraction. Don't get me wrong, the mystic and awe draw me in just like every other tourist, but the propensity for a prison to be a tourist attraction is odd especially since we pay money to go to see it. That being said, I was totally stoked to finally be on the island.

Originally, Alcatraz was home to a military base and prison during the Civil War, but the tour focuses on its time as a prison.  It was a US Penitentiary from 1933-1963 when it housed many of the nations top criminals. A fun Texas fact for you: the last warden at Alcatraz was a Texan too. 

There were several things about Alcatraz that I learned that day, but the most shocking was families of the officers who worked in the prison lived on the island just next door to the prison building. How crazy is that? Could you imagine raising your children just feet away from prison inmates? A few pictures were posted of the children playing in the courtyard outside of their houses that formed their own little community. There is even a lady who volunteers in the gift shop that was raised on the island.

I enjoyed our day at The Rock and would recommend it to anyone who is in the Bay Area.   Of course it's touristy, but sometimes thats what makes it fun!!